Better Purifier

Introduction: The Old is Passing Away

Last week we heard from TJ. JC is HP of a better covenant. It is a better covenant because it is founded on better promises. Those promises, that we can experience true heart change, that we can have a close intimate relationship with God, and that God forgives our sins to the uttermost, will echo through the rest of Hebrews, as they do here in our passage this morning.

We also heard it said the old covenant is becoming obsolete and is ready to pass away. Remember that is the Covenant, not the Old Testament. We need the OT. The past is the foundation of the future. When God chose to work in history, he chose to write a story that had a beginning a middle, and an end. In God’s story, he makes abundant use of foreshadowing and we’ll find that these shadows help us perceive the shape of the thing that casts the shadow, once we can grab hold of it. Often the new is not a discontinuation, a recasting, or a retcon of the old but a continuation and elevation of the old.

So as we read a book like Hebrews, written to a church thousands of years ago, we keep an open ear and an open heart to how what the author is saying may actually apply to us more closely than we think.

Hebrews 9:1–10 (ESV)

Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

(pray)

The Time of Regulation

So again, we have moved on from the foundations of the new covenant to what it looks like to take part in the new covenant. And the author looks back to the old covenant again, both to show us how much better the new covenant is, but also to convince his readers including us that this new covenant is not disconnected from the Old and that in fact if we understand the Old Covenant, we can better understand how to live in the New covenant. So we will spend a little time this morning wrapping our heads around what it was like to live in the Old Covenant.

What we have read, and what we will continue to see is that the time under the old covenant was a time of regulation. Regulations can be good, they keep us safe and keep society in check, but they can also be restrictive. Built into the old covenant are what the author calls “regulations for worship” (v.1) and regulations for the body (v. 10).

The Holy Places - Regulations for Worship/Services

The regulations for worship are the detailed instructions given concerning the design of the Tabernacle and the regulations surrounding the worship and service of the priests in and around the Holy Places. The Tabernacle was God’s own construction, he laid out the plans in painstaking detail. He begins to outline these instructions in Exodus 25:8-9

Exodus 25:8–9 ESV

And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.

The instruction continues for 6 chapters. God’s intention in being so precise is to create a place where heaven and earth overlap, a place that is exactly to his design, a mini Eden. Now as the author rightly says, we cannot speak of these things now in detail. That does rightly imply that there are many details to be gotten into. That’s not just on the Old Testament side of things, but on the New as well. If you're curious about that, I’d encourage you to go and read Revelation. It pictures many of these tabernacle elements in profound and symbolic ways. I’d like to walk us through a short video that can help us visualize what the Tabernacle looked like. I'll make a few comments as we go through.

(show video)

The first thing we see is that the Tabernacle itself, even the courtyard where all could enter, is separated from the rest of the wilderness.

As we enter into the courtyard we see the altar. This is where the people would bring their sacrifices, either animals or oil and grain. The priest would kill the animals, pouring their blood on the base of the altar and burning the flesh on the altar. They were required to keep the fire of the altar burning at all times.

Next, we see a basin in which the priests would be required to wash themselves before entering the first section of the tent.

As we enter into the first section, we see the lampstand on the left, the bread of the presence on the right, and the altar of incense in the middle. The priests would daily eat the bread of the presence as well as many of the animal sacrifices burnt on the altar, as was in some cases commanded. It was also within their ritual duties to keep the lampstand and the altar of incense lit at all times.

And finally, we see the second section, the section in which God’s presence dwells. The lid of the Ark of the Covenant is called the “Mercy Seat” in most translations, but the Hebrew word used literally means “the place of purging”, and the Greek word used is propitiation. Inside are symbols and signs of God’s faithfulness to his people and to the keeping of his covenant with them. The 10 commandments, the terms of the covenant; mana from God’s provision in the wilderness, and Aaron's staff that budded in Numbers 17, to prove that he and his line were chosen by God to be the mediators of the covenant.

Every aspect of this Tabernacle service, from the details in the curtains, the bill of materials, the clothes the priest wore, and the times, days, and specifications for certain sacrifices were all described in painstaking detail. These regulations for worship were defined to create a place where God could dwell with his people, a place made exactly to his design.

(End of video)

Insatiable Sin - Regulations for the Body

Now we move on to speak of regulations for the body. The author seems to have two things in view here, the sacrifices made for sin, to which we have already alluded, and the general laws of purity, which deal mostly with food drink, and various washings.

Now ritual impurity does not imply a moral failing of a specific person. There are abundant examples of people doing things that are not sinful but result in them becoming ritually impure. For example, most diseases would render one ritually impure, but it is not sinful to be sick. Certain foods were considered unclean and eating them would likewise make one unclean. To be sure, sin always results in ritual impurity, but ritual impurity does not always mean someone has sinned.

So what is ritual impurity then? There are things in this world that are outside of God’s original intent and design. That is an easy definition of sin, something outside of God’s design. Those things are not always the direct result of human action but are the effects of living in a world that is infected and polluted with sin. Anytime that touches somebody, they become ritually impure. God is the author of life, and to deviate from that design in any way is to cut off life, or to create death. Sin leads to death, anything outside of God’s design leads to death.

So when one would become ritually impure either by their own sin, or the effects of sin from outside of them, they would need to be purified. This was done both with ritual washings and with the giving of sacrifices. Now, let’s just acknowledge that animal sacrifice is weird. With our mechanistic, scientific understanding of the world, there is no straightforward way to understand how this works. You can’t find sin under a microscope. But it is real. God is often more a poet than we care to admit. It is a symbolic truth that underlies the sacrificial system, but it is still a truth.

That symbol is that blood is life. In Leviticus 17:1 God says this:

Leviticus 17:11 ESV

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

It is the blood that makes atonement for you by the life. When you have life and drain it from an animal, that liquid life takes sin(and its result which is death) on itself. If the result of sin is death then the idea is that the animal dies instead of you as a result of your sin. And that works for a while. But sin is less like a stain on a carpet and more like a hungry parasite. It is not an inactive thing. But a living and blood-thirsty animal. And that beast lives inside of us. It feeds on our life. The life of innocent animals can satiate it for a while, but never permanently.

Necessary Boundaries

If sin lives inside us, it’s no question why God sets up these boundaries. We have already seen that God will not compromise his holiness, his set-apartness, by compromising his design. These boundaries are also put in place for our protection. God is not scared of sin, but if his eternal life were to come into contact with sin it would destroy it, and if sin is part of us, which it is, it would destroy us as well. That’s why we see all of these levels of security as it were. But these levels of protection result in a lack of intimacy. The place where God dwelled, that second section was only accessed once a year, by one person, the high priest once a year. At that time the priest would offer sacrifices and sprinkle the blood of those sacrifices onto the place of purging, the mercy seat, to purify it from the sin of the people so that God’s presence could remain. Leviticus 16:19

Leviticus 16:19 ESV

And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel.

Think about that, the very place in which God’s presence was supposed to dwell had to be purged every year to make sure that the place was not defiled and his presence driven away. There was no intimate relationship here, it was distant, but it was a necessary distance if the relationship was to continue.

Put this in perspective of your relationships. Many of us have had to set boundaries in our relationships with parents, kids, friends, or coworkers, or even for a season a spouse, for our own good. Or for their own good. Those boundaries, while necessary for the relationship to continue, decrease the intimacy of the relationship.

However, boundaries in a relationship are never meant to be permanent. The goal of setting boundaries is hopefully to bring the relationship to a place where intimacy can be restored. That is God’s plan. The restoration of intimacy with his people. The times of regulation were only imposed until the time of reformation.

The Time of Reformation

Finally, we come to the second half of our passage for this morning.

Hebrews 9:11–14 (ESV)

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Eternal Redemption

Jesus, acting as our high priest, mediates a covenant with us. But he does not do so the way the high priest of old did. He enters into the heavenly tabernacle, the place the earthly tabernacle was meant to represent and overlap with. There he sprinkles not the blood of a goat or a bull, but his own blood, on the place of purging, the mercy seat. That blood was poured out on the cross, where he died, jumping into the throat of the beast that is sin, and his life, his eternal life, destroys that beast and drives away death forever. He has defeated death and trampled over sin. In doing so he frees us from the need to be continually purified offering sacrifice after sacrifice to atone for sin upon sin. He entered into that place once and for all, purifying us once and for all.

Do you know what that means? It means that whatever sins you have committed, whatever sins you are committing, whatever sins you will commit, have no power over you. They have no claim on your life. He has purchased it by his blood. That thing your struggling with, that habit you can’t kick, that guilt or shame you carry, they have no claim on you, no power over you. Jesus had secured for you eternal redemption.

Boundless Intimacy

More than that, he restores intimacy in our relationship with God. In the new covenant, we are the holy places, God lives in us. Throughout God’s story, the heavenly Tabernacle has overlapped with different places at different times. First, it overlapped with Eden, then with the Tabernacle in the wilderness, then with the temple in Jerusalem. Then, as was his original intent, in the hearts of his people, those who confess Jesus as the Lord and Savior.

His presence dwells inside of us, forget about boundaries and regulations. Where the high priest would sanctify the mercy seat the Holy Spirit constantly sanctifies us so that God’s presence can dwell in us and his promise is that he will continually do that, for the rest of your life. He is reforming you, his tabernacle, into the original intention of his creation. More and more, day by day, from glory to flory. He is restoring you to the original design that he had for you. True heart change, boundless intimacy, and complete forgiveness of sins: eternal redemption.

Conclusion: Has the New Arrived?

As we enter into a time of communion, I want to remind us why we do this ritual. It is perhaps the closest thing we have to the rituals of old. The wine and juice are a symbol of the blood of the new covenant that has purified and is sanctifying you. The bread reminds us that the work of Christ as our high priest and the holy spirit as our intimate ally continually sustains us. Like manna in the wilderness. It reminds us of God’s presence and faithfulness to us in this new covenant he has made with us.

I’ve made sure this sermon was shorter than usual so we could spend some extra time this morning preparing our hearts for the experience of this reality. Our passage reminds us that as long as the first section stands, the old way of doing things, the path to this intimacy, this heart change, this forgiveness, is not yet open. I want to invite you to consider before God this morning, what have you stood up as your first section? What intimacy are you pursuing instead of intimacy with God? How are you trying to tidy yourself up before you come to God? What idols are standing in your way? Reflect on that, repent, and enter into his presence this morning.